


Spectrum

by Silver Blue (Seraph_Years)



Series: Insight: A New Metaphysical Series [2]
Category: Original Work, Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Abrupt Ending, Chaptered, Inspired by JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating: M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:00:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24601981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seraph_Years/pseuds/Silver%20Blue
Summary: Two forces dominate the peaceful Solution City. One of these is Radiance, the energy radiating in all cute things.The mysterious Hexagon Foundation is in charge of keeping the other one running, and it is guarded by the even more enigmatic "The Reader".To keep the forces in balance, our heroes take up the responsibility of fighting various foes connected to The Reader.Chapters will be posted every >1000 words or so I write down. In other words, each chapter will be kind of short.
Series: Insight: A New Metaphysical Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765396





	1. Chapter 1

Reaction time (n): The amount of time it takes for someone to move before they get hit by something.

Quincy has lots of it here. After transferring over to Solution City from Visionary City, his lightning powers transformed themselves into a vast arsenal of abilities to use against large armies. These abilities are called Affinities. While no person has more than one Affinity, these abilities can change over time. Thus, a single Affinity can do so much more than what it appears to on the surface. Quincy's Affinity, Endear Force, can manipulate cards that activate from the back of the hand. Forty-eight cards per deck, up to 5 sets per user. The symbol determines each power, and the ability cannot go beyond the level of the user. Thus, Quincy has plenty to learn with his current deck.

Solution City, the city of hustle and hustling where many high buildings rise to the skies as the residents, all of whom are animals, somewhat quietly live their lives. Many of these people practice drawing and writing as their hobby, even earning money for their efforts from people that support them.  
There is a settlement that Sprite and his friends are said to be staying. Quincy goes there, but he makes sure that he isn't detected by Sprite, for the guy isn't sure whether to trust him or not. Doing so takes him behind an alley that another familiar face is hiding in.  
"You found me. I didn't think you'd do that. Tell me. If you or Sprite didn't run under any rules, where would you get your Endear Cards? Would you get them from somewhere you wouldn't usually go? Would your state of arousal be sufficient enough so that any sign of a reasonable conscience would cease from existence?"  
"How do you know I even possess such cards? I don't even know your name, and you know everything about me. Are you some mind-reader?" Quincy said.  
"Actually, no. I'm here to help you with your problems. I have some knowledge about the past on hand with me, and I'm more than strong enough to help you confront those issues. More specifically, I have mastered the art of time travel."  
"Time travel? How far have you gone back?" Quincy inquired.  
"As far back as 2013. That's where I met your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather."  
"What does that even mean?!" Quincy responded.  
"I'll tell you later."  
"Can you at least tell me your name?" Quincy said.  
"Eschaton. Formerly known as Starlight, I ascended into godhood and hid away here so that nobody would notice me. I'll be your greatest ally from now on. Your greatest challenge from here on out is your distant family!" Eschaton said while stepping out from the shadows. A sleek, gold figure with transparent, ethereal wings, Eschaton looked like somebody who could take on an entire army and look good doing it. Indeed, his primary weapon was a large gold and black sword that can shred through most opposing forces like a laser cutter through glass. Eschaton had become quite strong ever since he ascended into a full-blown deity.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Exciter was jogging and leaping across the city buildings, relieved that he finally gets to exercise his powers once more. He had taken the form of a mouse when he entered Solution City. The air of the place was lovely and pure; anyone could go for a walk in the spring-time weather. What Exciter didn't see coming was a polygonal alien. It had teleported right into his path, knocking him on his back. When he looked up, the humanoid polygonal menace had stared him down like a pharaoh speaking to his servant. In one hand was a sword that looked more like a lance than an actual sword. The thing was unmoving, unfeeling; its glare could kill a tiny animal.  
"What's your deal?" Exciter asked. It didn't move or speak.  
"You look kind of strange, where'd you come from?" he wondered. As soon as he asked this, it raised its sword. Quick to retaliate, Exciter sent it flying with a kick. "Don't try anything funny!" he exclaimed. Just then, he looked up and saw five others like it flying from portals. He didn't know why they were up there, which made him more and more curious. "They must belong to an army. I don't know why, but this one tried to attack me. I'm going to do more investigating." Exciter said to himself. The alien he was fighting then got up and charged at him! Exciter made his move right away.  
He summoned his crystals while keeping it back with his hands.  
When the alien attempted to pierce him with its lance, Exciter just twisted its arm, broke it off with sheer force, and threw it aside.  
Exciter's crystals finished the job by electrocuting the alien with electric lasers.  
"Glad that's over," Exciter said to himself while staring upon the alien's shattered corpse on the ground. He had never seen anything like this before. This was well beyond what Encore was capable of. The closer Exciter got to the shattered alien, the more he could feel a weird essence coming from it. Almost as if the thing came from the passages of time itself...

Eschaton opens up a portal to a new location. Quincy checks the inside of that portal and sees a world bordered by blue hexagons surrounded by cards of all types.  
"This is the Hexagon Foundation. This is a little more restrained than the other side of it. This is what I was talking about when I mentioned a world with no rules. You should be fine gathering Endear Cards here." Eschaton said while Quincy crawled through the entrance. The place had cards floating in rows where it was possible to grab one and tuck it away in a deck. Obtaining new powers couldn't be easier! Quincy turned his head, however, and saw one of the aliens that Exciter was fighting earlier. Quincy then made it target him instead; it was chowing down on something that Quincy couldn't quite see.  
It lunged at him.  
Quincy raised his hands as if casting a spell. Suddenly, a pink aura discharged from his hands!  
The alien was caught in the resulting thunder-like current of energy and shattered to pieces!  
"Where'd THAT come from?!" Quincy exclaimed.  
"Even I'm foreign on this concept, and I'm supposed to be all-knowing," Eschaton replied. What neither of them knew is that the minerals that Quincy absorbed during his fights with the Zodiacs in Visionary City evolved into a particular type of energy only he and others like him can harness. It is called Radiance. Radiance is the lifeblood of Endear Force, and once used correctly, it is capable of letting its user perform many feats. Healing, increased combat capabilities, object materialization, and more are now at Quincy's grasp! He couldn't believe his eyes once he took in all of that knowledge, but neither did he later on...  
"Not even this place can escape the wrath of those that want to make a name for themselves," Eschaton said.  
"What do you mean?" Quincy replied.  
Eschaton spreads his arms wide and claps hard, like someone closing a book. Instantly, two walls close tightly, preventing anyone from entering the room between them.  
"I want to protect you from the raging amount of controversy present in that room. Don't ever bring it up, even to yourself or me." Eschaton said to Quincy. He didn't even do anything to have that room be closed off, but heeding the guy's words, it didn't matter much. All that mattered now is getting these cards in Quincy's deck.  
One of Eschaton's capabilities is to deny anything ever occurred in a particular location. By erasing everything that Eschaton chooses in a specific radius, he is ceasing the event entirely and also preventing anyone in the range from even knowing what happened. The mind-wiping effect has no end result on Radiant ones. Thus, Quincy was able to remember everything that Eschaton erased, but he didn't care. He was out finding cards to pick up by riding around in a miniature airplane Eschaton made for him, Danger Seeker. A wild ride, indeed. Red-bordered cards turned into flying aliens and met Seeker's Gatling fire head-on. Quincy knew precisely what to pick using Seeker's high-tech radar. It never missed a decent card.

Quincy's cards are powered by Radiance. There's no limit to how many cards he can use at once, but they do have a cooldown period. Abilities that Quincy can fire off include energy pillars, ice spikes, tornadoes, spears made of hard Radiance, boosting his moves with elements, healing others and himself, and the list goes on. It would be easier describing what Quincy ISN'T capable of. Precisely, the more (and better) cards Quincy has, the more versatile his movepool is. He can improve these cards through usage in battle. Rank goes from 1 to 5 stars; the higher, the better. Quincy's other weapon of choice was forged from 18 of his cards in the Archival deck. He sorted those out and put his better cards in his active set, giving him a much better range over which ones he would want to use. (No more old, useless cards from years ago where the good ones should be.) The other weapon of choice is a literal golden gun called the Target Force. It fires Radiance and has a tendency to stun enemies upon hit, setting them up for even more shots. The better Quincy's cards are on average, the stronger the gun. It predictably doesn't run out of ammo.  
The higher the rank of the card, the flashier and more useful the card is. For example, ice spikes become entire glaciers, tornadoes become bigger and move around, ripping apart the battlefield (and any enemies it hits), energy pillars become vertical lasers, healing abilities can revive those that die on the field, and so forth. This is the law of Radiant Energy, cuteness personified, according to Eschaton.

"The animals on your cards appear to be radiating this powerful force that enhances your attacks and creates new ones outright. This is extremely state-of-the-art," he said concerning this powerful ability.

Through Quincy's exploits, the Hexagon Foundation soon had part of its entire map revealed to him and Eschaton. Through that, the strands of time and space were unfurled to them both. This is what gave them access to another year in the past, entirely.  
"What did we cut open, and how?" Quincy wondered.  
Through open space, Exciter leaped by and was able to see the two for one second before drifting off into the space-time continuum.  
"What are you two doing here?" he managed to say.  
It was a miracle. Nobody had ever attempted the skill of time travel before. Exciter didn't even know how he also got this far. All he did was do Sprite a favor and explore "a mysterious dimension." For all he knows, he ended up in space.

He didn't. The year is 2016, and the number of cards here is astronomical. None of them could even be acquired. It's a spectacular festival of red-bordered cards galore, and that meant that Quincy and Eschaton had to do some fighting. This is Sector 4 of the Metaverse Junction, filled with enemies that Quincy has felt like he's seen before, but never actually encountered. Eschaton limits his abilities here and just relies on his sword. Meanwhile, Exciter is trying to figure out the miracle of shifted time. Nobody knows what's what, but the more they skip ahead, the more challenges they encounter.

"This is a world with no rules. Everything goes. Your heart's desire is revealed to you through these cards, and every attempt to fight it is met with intense pressure. The Radiance and the Passion do not mix, so I'd advise you to take your time." a mysterious figure says on top of the barrier dividing Sector 4 from Sector 3.

"It appears he's seen it. He's going to see all of it. Might as well set it up for him."

"This is Sector 4, and there are absolutely no rules contained in this or the Junction. That means every room is accessible if you play your cards right. Nothing hinders your progress. Especially not if you casually aim around, taking enough risks to finally let yourself go to the aims of your lack of conscience. You see it, right? I frequent this sector 24/7. That means all of these cards are mine: each and every single one of them. Their numbers break limits. I can command each one and have it transform into what's depicted. As for me, I have a little trick of my own. See, my Affinity gives me control over glass, which is what Sector 4 is bordered by. I can crack the glass, and send the shards flying at whoever I want. This gives me full control over the battlefield. It can shield me, protrude from the ground, summon itself in spike pillars, and so on. I should have an edge against him when he shows up!"

Sure, Quincy's journey may have turned him into a loose cannon, outright letting enemies survive thanks to his "art of evasion" ("Don't look directly at who you're up against! The cards will stun you!" he said) failing him before Eschaton literally knocks some sense into him. This doesn't prevent him from noticing that all of Sector 4's bordered by glass. The perpetrator leaps from his perch and confronts them head-on, making sure that Eschaton can't even move or use his powers by trapping him in a web using the cards around him.  
"I'm 2016's prime representative for the timeline. My name is Sear, and I don't even know why you're even in Sector 4," he said.  
"Me neither. We traced those cards flying around here to you, and if we need to shut down your operations to go back to where we came from, we will." Quincy said.  
"Well, you're already caught in my cycle. Those cards of yours will now be added to my collection." Sear said.  
Quincy just tries to smack Sear instead.  
Sear blocks it with one arm and launches a glass shard at Quincy in retaliation.  
Quincy's hit to the chest is shrugged off as Quincy just pulls it out and fires three streams of lasers at Sear.  
Sear's glass barrier attempts to block it, but then the plasma bolts fly behind Sear.  
"The wall is bordered by glass, no?" Quincy pointed out. "I wasn't really aiming for you."  
The plasma bolts hit the glass panel behind Sear and temporarily makes him unable to move because his Affinity was dented.  
Quincy takes his chance to land a decent combo on him before Sear jumps out of it.  
Sear then summons multiple glass barriers and attempts to push Quincy aside with them, hoping that he falls into one of the many holes in the ground.  
Quincy just uses his sword cards to break the glass.  
By the time he's even gotten close to Sear, he's already relocated to above the arena.  
Quincy charges up a spiked yoyo-like weapon to bash Sear with, BUT! Sear surrounds himself with glass shards and jabs Quincy with one before leaping off into the distance, getting hit by the yoyo on the way out. This breaks both of his legs.  
"Not too major of an injury, but he got me good." Quincy thought to himself. Reencountering Sear would be guaranteed, but differently from usual. He would relocate to a new secret place throughout time and space that once again contains no rules. 

Protecting the order of many an intimate one was his only goal. He can't disappoint his higher power.


	2. Chapter 2

Earlier, Exciter had approached Sprite, now living with the very people he's allied with. He had re-introduced himself, but Sprite brought up something interesting.  
"We conducted some research on the boundaries of time and space and found a bend in the space-time continuum. An entirely different universe has been spotted within the dimensional confines. That universe has its own timeline, and it could very likely interfere with our own. Go ahead and scout it out. I'll give you the route to the Hexagon Foundation. Don't take any of the cards there, safe or not!" Sprite said to Exciter before opening up a portal there using his integrated Affinity, which allows him to open up gateways to other dimensions. Running about the place was a journey all on its own. He did manage to find the split in time Sprite was talking about, however. Before he took a closer look, however, he briefly went outside to get some fresh air. That's when he encountered the alien...

As Quincy and Eschaton were ready to leave the Hexagon Foundation, Exciter drifted off into another room entirely. One that looked all too familiar to Eschaton before as 6 red laser pointers aimed at him.  
"This doesn't look all that safe," Exciter said to himself. His appearance began to change, step by step. Eventually, his mind became affected by the rift in the continuum, and he took on another layer of godliness.

Meanwhile, Quincy's journey through said Hexagon Foundation now had him erasing all of the neutral-colored, red-bordered cards that stood in his way.

"If you want to divert yourself away from this madness in a stylish manner, just do what I do. First, you have to unwrap that Artifact to reveal its pure form. The process may involve copious amounts of hemoglobin leaking from the target, but it's guaranteed to release the enemy from it and allow you to erase it for good. This is what's required to avoid getting deleted yourself in this Foundation." Quincy's notes on how to erase the Foundation's Artifacts. Artifacts are the visual works of those who come and go from the Foundation that come in grey-bordered (safe) and red-bordered (explicit) variations. They are all over the walls of the establishments found throughout the Foundation. There are four in total, and one can warp to an establishment as they please. Eagle, Hawk, Falcon, and Condor. Those are the four. They're all massive fortresses that make up the Foundation, with the Main House in the middle. One tall skyscraper where the people in charge look over the different houses. This brings order to the universe of Artifacts.

Then, Quincy saw a brief vision of the room that Eschaton shoved out of the way.  
"That looks familiar," he said to himself as he followed the light to where that room was. Eschaton tried to close it, but he had already gone in.

"You have entered a world of complete and utter sorrow. Please continue further. We've awaited you since this whole thing got started, and we would not like for you to miss it again. Take 5 steps further."

Quincy does so, and the room breaks apart, revealing nothing but space.  
"Sign of Justice will augment your abilities, giving you more range over what you can do."  
This reveals Quincy's darker side, which summons a guardian next to him that significantly increases the power of his moves by attacking in tandem with him.  
"Movement 1 of your card system carried lackluster attack power. Try using them now."  
Indeed, Quincy's ice pillars became more prominent, and the plasma beams he was once capable of firing have turned into plasma streams. His enemies were the notorious Wave Busters, which was the "controversy" that Eschaton once brought up. These delinquents with claws for hands came in a pack of 5. Quincy cared not for their names, for he was only concerned about letting his powers rip.  
Quincy charges up a move as they approach.  
One of them attempts to swipe at him.  
Quincy just releases the mass of energy projectiles that bounce along the ground as they explode, launching them all back.  
They then stack themselves up into a tower, with the highest one up jumping at Quincy.  
Quincy just forms a long energy sword seemingly out of thin air and cuts the Buster in two. "No amount of blood on this battlefield can change the outcome," he said.  
The 2nd one on top also makes the jump, approaching him from a zig-zag movement.  
Quincy just has Sign of Justice grab the Buster, choking it.  
Quincy, by himself, just summons two glaciers from underneath the rest of the stack and finishes the combo by bifurcating all three with two pillars of light.  
"Are you done with this guy yet?" Quincy asked.  
All of a sudden, the space backdrop got significantly more intense, appearing to carry Quincy all the way through the entire universe and back. A very surreal and strange sequence plays out in front of Quincy, showing him everything he needs to see concerning the new reality, called the Radiant Sun. Suddenly, the mysterious figure appeared.  
"Let me take the pain away," it said. Father Pure, it called itself. It was the being that could control the flow of emotions and feelings. As such, it has significant control over the Radiance. Doing so, it heavily reconfigures Quincy's card system to have better control over Radiant powers. This unlocks movement 2.  
"I will correctly ensure you that nothing ever happens concerning this room ever again. Let it be the last thing that happens. As a result, reversing the Hexagon Foundation to remove restrictions set in place to avoid corrupting you is now forbidden. You've been doing it over and over again, thinking you'd be safe. I can't bear the thought of seeing someone getting erased by his own quota. I just can't."  
Father Pure said these words before sending Quincy away to the alleyway from whence he came.

Too bad the mystery of time and space is still out there...

Meanwhile, Father Pure encountered a mysterious facility in the strands of space and time. It appeared to be an empty tavern, but the polygonal aliens from last time surrounded it completely!  
"Well, if there's one thing I don't like about this place, it's the sheer amount of conflict I'm about to cause." Father Pure said to himself.  
His body covered entirely in light, he ran over to the tavern and kicked in the very first alien that he encountered.  
They tried lunging at him, but with every dodge and sidestep, Father Pure just couldn't bother to get hit.  
Meanwhile, Father Pure kicks one enemy into the wall, violently propels another into the ceiling, and slams yet another one into the ground.  
He then backflips out of the way of another.  
He then fires a beam of light at the last one in the room, ripping it apart vertically.  
When he cleared out the entire area, the tavern lit up and covered itself with lights! Within moments, a whole crowd gathered within the place, mostly men. Father Pure turned himself invisible and blended everything but his eyes into the background. Like a chameleon, sneaking through the area till he was outside, not a soul in sight.  
"Not getting spotted is the best part of my day. It feels fun knowing that people can live their lives without having to see a Higher Soul wander through a lively area." Father Pure thought.

The story of an artist's dilemma, Quincy enters a point of no return.

Quincy enters a house in another world. There, a sword is positioned blade down. It's bursting with energy like it wants someone to pick it up. When he went to grab it, a force as bright as heaven itself came over him, and his Radiant Deck had transferred itself over to the sword!  
"My cards... they're all gone, but I can still see the images engraved within their surfaces. Guess I don't need them!" Quincy thought to himself as he put the Everlasting Gallery away. He went forth and turned to the left. As he walked down the hallway, he turned left again and saw some floors that were descending altitude. There was also a window on the wall that only revealed a blue sky.  
"That can't be right. Where does this lead?" Quincy asked himself. This is a question that should have been left unanswered. Once he jumped down to the other platform, the white wall took on a clean appearance, as if you could draw on it.  
"Okay, sure, but where are the drawing supplies?" he asked.  
"You don't need any. Imagine yourself in front of a blank canvas, ready to perform a daring art you've never tried before. Instead of trying to draw anything, however, you merely imagine something that would go best with that canvas. Although movement 2 is still with you, you're not ready enough to use that sword. Here we enter... Final Discourse." Father Pure spoke with Quincy with the use of telepathy. Within seconds, Quincy absorbed everything he could possibly ask for. The space around him collapsed into an unending galactic cycle. Indeed, the universe surrounds him with the powers of someone almighty. Possessing increased reaction speeds, unreal power (because why attack physically when you have all of the Radiance?), and immunity to everything, Final Discourse is a work of the gods crafted for only the worthy.  
Quincy jumps out of that world and into Solution City, this time running on the skyscrapers. The Hexagon Foundation has blended into the city, and Quincy had to dodge everything being fired at him at once. However, the more he evaded the enemy attacks, the more he realized that he was NOT controlling his reaction speed.  
"Father Pure, what's going on here?!" Quincy yelled. Even his running was being taken over by Pure.

"Even though he's not controlling his reaction speed, he still doesn't feel anything when he does get hit. It's like his power high is so intense that the counter that we use for checking how many red-bordered cards he's been hit by froze entirely! Just how powerful is Final Discourse?" Eschaton comments.  
"If you really had to know, well... Final Discourse is a little more than a part of me. It's a mashup of all the beautiful things the Radiance is known for. None of the clutter associated with a pack of cards. Just those sweet old squares that we call Particle Affinities. All it takes is a snap and a point away, and once you're thinking about that Particle, its power is yours to keep. Imagine him running around slaying those polygonal menaces. It's going to be the best thing you've ever seen to date." Father Pure commented.

There's more in that room. Father Pure and Eschaton are merely testing Quincy. Better yet, there's another time period to explore!

Sprite enters a parallel dimension and meets up with another shadowy figure from the past. His location, Hyperspace, is blue and flashy. It appears to be an enormous battle arena surrounded by rails above and platforms all around the field. Sprite came there because he knew someone familiar was about to drop by to his side of the world border.  
"Figured you'd stop by." the figure said sarcastically.  
With his spear in hand summoned from thin air, he rushed towards Sprite.  
Sprite disappeared into the wall and showed up from beneath the ground.  
Sprite dragged the figure in and attempted to damage him.  
The figure merely kicked him upward and stabbed him once.  
Sprite, feeling at a disadvantage, tried to use the momentum to create another dimensional pocket.  
Reappearing back on the arena, the figure saw him coming and kicked him into the wall.  
"That's it. That's totally it." Sprite thought. He had taken on this guy because he was entirely on board with the plans of a person he called "The Reader."  
"Did you honestly think you'd halt our little movement? Transpiring throughout time and space is a gathering of every little important thing we've collected over the years... We're putting everyone in a state of unbridled joy through the force of Dominion. You heard it from The Reader's mouth." he said.

Meanwhile, Father Pure sends Quincy through a blue path along the road.  
"Once you run along this path, the world around you will flicker blue and red, the signs of a world being flipped back and forth. Don't worry about any changes, for they won't transpire. Sprite needs our help, and you will have to travel through time to confront our adversary in 2014. Have I told you about Reversals yet? They occur only in the Hexagon Foundation; when you perform one by clapping your hands twice in quick succession really hard, the world turns red, and the red-bordered cards will actually reveal their actual forms right away. This is incredibly risky to use, as it leaves you wide open for an ambush!" Father Pure explained.  
"If you have to worry about anything, it's not seeing me come back to Solution City," Quincy reassured. The whole "under attack" thing was a test from Father Pure to see how well Final Discourse worked.  
Quincy ran down the road, getting faster and faster with each step until eventually, the light flickering started. The time tunnel kept getting wider and wider. Then, it's pitch black.

Thrown into Hyperspace in the year 2014, Quincy sees nothing but flashy blue platforms and background, Sprite on the floor being stepped on by the enemy, and several pockets used to teleport.  
"Tell me, sir, why are you stepping on him, and what is it you're trying to achieve?" Quincy asked the new guy in his best British voice he could take on.  
"You wouldn't get it. It's called Dominion, and we're going to take the world over with it!" he said. "If you have to refer to me, it's Trail."  
"It's not your name I want, it's your motive." Quincy retorted.  
"Unbridled joy through the lively retreat of art!" Trail exclaimed.  
"Explicit nudity or tasteful? I know tons about both. There ain't nothing you can do about it." Quincy said while revealing Final Discourse.  
"You catch on fast. Let's see if you can catch on to this!" Trail said.  
He tried to punch, but Quincy backed away.  
A swipe of his spear was met with a ducking motion.  
Multiple jabs with his spear, Quincy was evading at speeds Trail had never seen before.  
"How are you moving so fast?!" Trail exclaimed as he kept swiping at Quincy with no success.  
"I don't know, it's not my reflexes!" he said.  
Quincy then retaliated by crouching and flip-kicking Trail's spear out of his hand. He then leaped up and caught it.  
"Now I have the upper hand," he said.  
Quincy then charged the spear with Radiance and threw it at Trail.  
Trail just grabs the spear and snaps it.  
"That was pretty easy. Wanna know what Dominion feels like?!" Trail shouted.  
Throwing Quincy into a portal, he sent him into various rooms filled with red-bordered cards. "These are the kinds of things The Reader gave me from the Hexagon Foundation! It is with these and so many more scattered across time and space that we can combine their forces and achieve 'Diagonal Unity.' In case you don't understand what that is, it's complete and utter perfection!" Trail shouted.  
Quincy jumped from peg to peg in the world of confusion and "unbridled joy." Lasers from the crystal embedded in the purple walls phase through him. They do nothing at all to his body or even his clothes. Even when he bounces on the red-bordered cards, they do nothing to him. He sees them in all their glory, but not a thing happens to him. He's not even using any but one of his Particle Affinities, which increases his precision!

"So this is the power of Dominion, huh? All I need to do is get out of here." Quincy remarked.  
As soon as he traveled out of there, Sprite was up wrestling a gun out of Trail's hands. Quincy had taken no damage at all, and that's the first thing both of them noticed when he got back.  
"Wow, that quickly?" they both questioned in unison. Then they went back to wrestling with the gun before Quincy just stomped the ground and produced a vibration hard enough to break their grasps. The weapon was sent flying, and Quincy caught it.  
He then fired it at Trail, buffing it with a Particle Affinity. Trail still catches the bullet.  
Trail then turned the bullet into a battle ax and charged at Quincy. Once again, every strike and swing was met with a dodge. When Trail aimed for the legs, Quincy flipped upward, landed behind Trail, and grabbed his neck. He then flung him backward with insane force, making him drop his ax in the process. He then fired the gun at Trail once and then threw it away.  
"I've spent enough time messing with you. I think it's time to end the cycle." Quincy said. With that, he briefly unfurled his wings while crossing his arms. "This is exactly what you're messing with, and this force is not a toy," Quincy said.  
The shockwave produced by the wings was large enough to knock Sprite back a bit and to completely erase Trail from existence. Hyperspace isn't affected, but Quincy feels more than a little tired out from the sheer amount of stamina required to perform such a move.  
"What did you do?!" Sprite asked just before they were whisked to the future.  
"Do...what? Domi...?" Quincy said before the time warp occurred.

Somewhere else, Father Pure had hoped that he could successfully combine the Dominion forces with that of the Radiance. In doing so, his experiment summoned a massive being that thrived on both and caused enormous havoc in the process. Even Father Pure was thrown back at how far he had gone. All he wanted to do was perform an extraordinary test. Besides, he also wanted to see what Quincy was capable of when he underwent the same effects. This being, Dominion Pure, traveled to the skies upon being summoned and proceeded to harvest a vast amount of Radiance and Dominion power. The best of both worlds, it wanted. Father Pure stepped out of his lab and saw to his horror that Quincy and Sprite had returned. They were positioned right under the beast!  
Quincy felt a strong feeling radiating under him, but he wasn't sure if it was Radiance or Dominion. He knew he was immune to both due to the wing effect he did back in the time field. However, Father Pure decided to perform another test. This time, he took off Final Discourse from Quincy! Quincy didn't feel much when his power disappeared. Father Pure gaped in shock and confusion; Quincy was so used to Final Discourse and the constant amount of dodging around with it that almost all of his abilities stayed with him! Movement 2 was given a small upgrade "Final Division." The only thing Final Division takes away is complete and utter invulnerability, but with Quincy's advanced reflexes that he grew into, he doesn't need it! With that, Quincy sees Father Pure's failed project above and decides to rush after it. "Absolutely no-one can follow me up there. This thing was summoned for a reason, and that's to end a 7-year cycle! Once this is gone, the war will be cut in half!" Quincy said before jumping up there.  
Quincy got stronger the longer he stayed up there. Dominion and Radiance surrounded him, giving him a perfect influx of both to use to strengthen himself. However, it was not enough. Since he figured out how to directly harvest both energies from Dominion Pure itself from his fingers, he did so to every wall he could find. He also tested his newfound strength on every enemy he encountered. He would throw them aside, cut their heads off with one swipe, kick them around with enough force to launch them, and even surround the arena in a bloody mess due to the explosive power of Everlasting Gallery. Indeed, he was a force to be reckoned with.  
Just before he encountered Dominion Natural, which is the core of Dominion Pure, he grew differently colored wings than usual. They were translucent, but they worked. He flew up high, beyond the heaven-like skies that formed Dominion Pure's insides. The sphere that could end the world was right there, waiting for him. Speechless, yet monstrous. It turned into an angel and prepared to fight Quincy through the open skies of Dominion Pure.  
Each and every strike confirmed that the two were on par with each other.  
Quincy's sword and brute strength were both strong enough to gradually crack Natural's sword.  
Natural fired a current of Dominion force at Quincy, but his god-like reaction time saved him.  
In response, Quincy tossed a saw blade-shaped Particle Affinity made of Dominion energy at Natural. It tried to deflect it, but its sword broke instead.  
Quincy then fired two waves of Radiant energy at Natural. It flew away and doubled down on the Dominion firepower.  
Quincy's reaction time was top-notch here as he made an effort to dodge every single blast. One of the projectiles DID hit his leg, though.  
"This is the first time anyone has harmed me ever since I got Final Discourse," Quincy remarked. The scar didn't hurt much because he protected himself beforehand with a defense buff. "Particle Affinities get the job done."  
Quincy just decided to get it over with and fly to Natural, grabbing it by the body.  
He flew downwards at an alarming rate while charging his hand up with energy from both sides. With a powerful shockwave, Dominion Pure started vanishing.  
"I'm not done yet!" Quincy said. He then proceeded to take in all of the Radiance and Dominion that Dominion Pure let out. Just when it vanished for good, Quincy was hovering there, not affected by anything.

"What has he become now?!" Father Pure exclaimed.  
He had become precisely what he expected. Quincy was now in a league of his own. Movement 2 upgraded to Movement 3 as he and Final Division became one, giving him powers like no-one has ever seen before. All of his Particle Affinities were upgraded, and lots more were added to the Everlasting Gallery!

"Why would you do this?" Quincy asked.

"It was just a test. I wanted to see how well these power sources would flow together! Maybe just in small amounts..." Father Pure replied.


	3. Chapter 3

Quincy looks to his side after waking up from sleep in Father Pure's place, which he was put in after some of his powers were taken from him. The only thing he had left was his crazy reaction speed. On his left was a blue, translucent arrow. On the right of that was a note telling him to "imbue yourself with the arrow." Quincy refused and went outside for a jog.  
Along the way, he met someone who he'd never thought he see before. "You shouldn't be here, you were only present in Dominion Pure, but then I killed you!" Quincy remarked. The creature, who was a quite familiar yellow fox with purple markings, had a right hand resembling a giraffe's head that could fire projectiles. Quincy ran over and tried to strike it, but none of his sword strikes actually harmed it. He then tried a move that he had learned when he progressed to movement 3.  
A silhouette of Krystal appeared behind him, outlined in blue. "My new Affinity, Conjuration, allows me to summon a variety of familiar characters across so many different worlds and universes. I cherry-picked the best ones to fight with." Quincy explained.  
Still, her staff did minuscule damage to this new threat. Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, Quincy stepped back more and more with each advance the enemy made. But what's enough is enough, so before she fired her cannon, Quincy "imbued" himself with the arrow, causing a shockwave massive enough to knock the enemy flat on its back.

Quincy was then taken to a church-like area called Heaven's Door, as the note said once he got there.  
"Yep, sounds cult-ish to me," Quincy remarked to himself. Just when it couldn't get any more suspicious to him, a guy dressed in a robe approached him. Quincy tried to pass the arrow to him, thinking it's his, but the guy said: "Keep it. It's going to be your entrance to here from the outside world from now on. Follow me, I have something to show you."  
Quincy followed him to a wall that has blue outlines on it. They were quite mystical and mysterious. "Step on that tile in front of the wall. What this will do is grant you an ever-changing guardian. Reliable, sentient, and fast. The reason why I sent you here is that all that Dominion energy you absorbed had caused a life-changing event inside of you; it was slowly damaging your very soul! I'm granting you the ability to use Heaven's Eye." he said. "I'm the Gatekeeper. Remember that."

Once the process was completed through the usage of 4 electrical currents, Quincy suddenly leaped up, gained a boost through the Gatekeeper's shoulders, and kicked a Dominion Peon square in the face, releasing it from its card. Quincy then ran over and struck it 4 times with the Everlasting Gallery. Once it vanished, Quincy put the sword away.

Quincy went back outside and confronted the creature, this time with Heaven's Eye by his side. A quite literal knight in slim, shining armor, it dismantled the enemy in three hits.  
On the other side of Solution City was a blue, Dominion-fueled station called Dominion's Conduit. Residing in it was Dangle, who looked quite similar to the animal that Heaven's Eye destroyed. He took several Affinities (we would call these "images") and connected them together by strands of energy. Dominion's Web was a part of an on-going experiment by the Reader that, if enacted, could change - and take control - of parts of the entire world, not just Solution City. Quincy went to Dangle's room and, upon listening in on his plan to support The Reader, Conjured a silhouetted fox wearing a tie to maul him with. Even though he blocked the attack, Quincy already knew what to do. He threw an explosive tag at Dangle and called back the fox. By the time Dangle struggled to get it off of him, the Particle Affinity had blown up in his face, leaving him as nothing more than a body. The Conduit went with him, propelling Quincy back so far that he warped to the year 2015.  
A hillside covered in Radiance, Cuteness Valley housed only one individual. Solar descended from seemingly nowhere. He anticipated Quincy's arrival ahead of time and clarified that he was not the enemy. He knew about the Reader's scheme to merge four periods of time together - which he did - and harvest multitudes of Dominion forces together to craft his own army and massively boost Sector 4 of the House of Dominion in 2016. Doing this means that he has a sure shot at bending Solution City to his will. Quincy asked if Solar could join him. Agreeing to this, Solar and Quincy went back to 2020 through Heaven's Eye. The Gatekeeper, Eschaton, Sprite, and Father Pure were waiting for all three of them to come back. They were already standing there when they returned.

Meanwhile, a team of three bikers assembled in a desert. Their names were Midway, a beaver, Speeder, a squirrel, and Jack, a jackal. Their objective was to crop Dominion Affinities to make them more suitable for the Radiance. It seems simple enough, but their tasks get harder and harder by the moment. They all share Quincy's ability to stare directly at a Dominion Affinity and not even get touched, which is vital for the process. Their bikes were state-of-the-art technology, being sleek, futuristic motorbikes that were different colors depending on who's driving it. Midway's is gray, Speeder's is blue, and Jack's is green.  
To crop the Affinity, the one doing the job has to use a pencil to erase the bits they don't want. All three of them are under orders from Midway to know which ones to take and which ones they don't. But their journey came to a halt after recovering 9 Twin Balance Affinities. Midway saw a cliff in the distance.  
"Jack, go right, Speeder, go left. I'll take this on myself." Midway said to them both. As they did so, Midway deliberately stopped his bike. He put it on Neutral gear, then pushed the gas pedal in an attempt to overclock the engines. One he did so, he exited the bike as he put it on Drive.  
The bike went so fast that Midway had one second to see the bike for the last time before it crashed into a rock blocking the cliff. From it, revealing a portal to another world.  
"I think I found our real destination. Let's bring these over there, okay?" Midway said to his two brothers before realizing that they weren't anywhere in sight. Even though he had his radio with him, they still wouldn't respond. Midway got worried, so he went in there by himself.  
Quincy was taking a walk down the city, with all sorts of cars and passerby, well, passing him by. The portal from earlier appeared on top of a skyscraper, Heaven's Eye warning him about the new person. Teleporting Quincy on top of the building, Midway introduced himself.  
"Hello there, my name is Midway. I brought some gifts for you, but you have to promise me something," he said.  
"Which is?" Quincy pondered.  
"Since I brought these items from a place you might have been before, I want you to best me in combat." Midway explained. "Simple rules, knock me down."  
Meanwhile, a motorbike was running its engines below the tower's rooftops.  
Quincy was about to use Everlasting Gallery, but Heaven's Eye stepped in for him. "That sword is conducive to his 'gifts.' You might want to let me deal with this guy." Heaven's Eye said.  
Heaven's Eye stepped forward and clashed swords with Midway. Every stroke of each other's swords connected. They neither missed once nor twice. It came to a head when Quincy slid down the tower and chased after the motorbike speeding down the road recklessly. When he got close to the wreckage, none other than Speeder jumped out of it, armed with a more powerful sword than Midway did. This time, he did not hold back with his strikes. Quincy had no choice but to duel him with his own sword. They clashed swords until Everlasting Gallery sent them into an angelic-looking arena that was topped with thousands of stars. Speeder summoned an army of four hooded figures using the Dominion web technique that Dangle tried all that time ago. Quincy followed that up with a Particle Affinity.  
It split into six. Six brown anthropomorphic critters (rabbits? who knows?) were summoned into the field, all dancing on an indefinite loop.  
"Two can play that game," Quincy said. "You can't stop me."  
The Radiance emitted from all six entered his gun, which he hasn't used until now. He fired it just once, piercing the Radiant barrier that his group had made. Once the bullet hit Speeder, his entire body expanded and burst like a balloon. It was not a pretty sight, but at least the Particles were called back just before he exploded.  
Meanwhile, Heaven's Eye, which evolved into Phase 2, was duking it out with Midway inside of a tornado. Taking on a samurai-like appearance, every hit it dealt hurt Midway a ton. Still refusing to be knocked down, Midway eventually stepped forward, holding his blade in front of him. Heaven's Eye just warped them both to the Divine Sanctum, which is the gateway to a place that is heaven-like but not quite there. Contrary to both of their expectations, Jack had beat them both to it using his bike. It was equipped with technology that The Reader developed. It gave Jack the chance to guard the Divine Crossroads.

A man devoted to his cropping jobs, Jack directly traveled to the Divine Sanctum in an attempt to find more Affinities to crop. This is despite a direct order from Midway not to go anywhere farther than where he was. This is a safety measure to ensure that every member of his group made it out of every mission alive. However, Jack disobeyed this command willingly to fuel his own potential for an ability he developed separately from the group: to control Dominion Affinities uncropped!  
Jack went on a spree of gathering different Affinities from the air around him, for the Sanctum gave him everything he might have wanted. He wanted to be unstoppable. The stars around the field glowed magnificently as he did so, giving him a bit of a power high.  
The Gatekeeper was also there, staring in horror. "Did you have to travel here just to get what you wanted?" he asked.  
"You said it yourself. Ascending is purely dependent on one's desire. I got here because I wanted to obtain the best feeling possible. And now that I've stacked the game in my favor...."

He took this with him as he traveled to the gate of the Divine Crossroads. There stood Midway and Heaven's Eye, who stopped their battle when Jack arrived on the scene.  
"Jack, I don't know why you let the promise of all of these Affinities get to your head. We were supposed to purify them, and here you come taking them all in their natural state. I can even tell you're undergoing a power high! What do you plan to do with that power of yours?" Midway said.  
"Absolutely nothing." Father Pure said upon warping to the Divine Sanctum. "He believes in the Dominion like it's a religion now. I believe it's time to balance those two powers out."  
Father Pure weaponized every power that he took from Quincy that he could, starting with the Particle Affinities. He summoned three of them and had them circle around him.  
Jack turned one of his Dominion Affinities into a sword to directly fight Father Pure with. Pure dodged every hit, replying with melee strikes.  
Jack, not flinching to this, flip kicked Pure high up in the air, following it up with over a dozen needles.  
Pure got up from this attack and rushed at Jack, surrounding himself with sawblades.  
Meanwhile, in the confusion of the battle, Quincy snuck up from behind Heaven's Eye (he made it to the Divine Sanctum through Eschaton, who is not present in the Sanctum) and jabbed him with the arrow, making it vanish.  
Heaven's Eye then grew wings and had his sword upgrade to a laser sword. He flew upwards and grabbed Jack.  
Heaven's Eye, now on Phase 3, could actually go to the Divine Crossroads. He warped Quincy there and threw Jack past the door.  
Jack reappeared in the ethereal roads and saw Quincy there, now holding Heaven's Eye's laser sword. Preemptively, Quincy summoned a silhouetted bunny cop who was resized up to Quincy's height to make it more equal.  
"Midway gave his little gifts to you before you showed up to fight me, didn't he?" Jack said.  
"I don't know what gifts you're speaking of, but I did bring quite a few companions with me. No, wait. Make that a LOT of companions." Quincy replied. His Conjurations had limits: depending on the character, it took away different segments of Quincy's meter, which was represented by a circle-shaped bar on Quincy's right hand. It was 3 for now, but he can add more bars to this meter over time.  
"The only thing upsetting this balance right now is you, and there's only one way to reset the scales again; to put a cap on the Dominion you're using. It's quite overbearing on the world."  
Jack, upon hearing this, unleashed 4 of his Affinities and launched them at Quincy.  
The rabbit jumped up and kicked it away, it blowing up once it hits the ground far away from Jack.  
She then ran towards Jack and attempted to best him in hand-to-hand combat. Once she tried to kick him, though, Jack grabbed her leg and slung her across the field, putting her out of commission.  
"Well, there goes two of my bars of Conjurations right there." Quincy lamented before rushing towards Jack. He delivered a 6-hit combo of dashing strikes at him, then kicked him up in the air.  
Jack tries to regain his composure, but Heaven's Eye imbues its overwhelming power into Quincy, and that's when Quincy speed-blitzed some more hits into Jack, then stabbed him with his laser sword and flung him far away.  
Jack, in a lot of pain but still alive, got up and charged up for an attack. Heaven's Eye moved Quincy away from the air and on the ground.  
Jack then launched his Eight Naughty Words, a series of sparks that fly around and home into their targets.  
Quincy deflected them all with his sword, then waited for Jack to launch something else, given how he's still charging.  
Jack then launched a beam of light from his palm that even demolished the lamps lighting the roads when it swept to meet Quincy's side.  
Quincy flew up and activated two more of his Particles: a portal that shot tiny light beams that distracted Jack from the main attraction; Quincy teleporting to his side.  
Thus, Quincy delivered 8 more hits using his sword, but not before Jack stabbed him with an arm pumped full of Dominion.  
"Did you forget? I don't flinch to whatever hits me! You're not the first one to try and bypass that strong point, are you?" Jack says to Quincy.  
Out of the blue, Solar rushes in and grabs Jack, then flips twice in the air and slams Jack on the ground. This releases Quincy from Jack's grasp.  
While Jack was getting up, both Quincy and Solar were standing over him, holding their own weapons (Solar wields an interchangeable sword that can add or remove bits and pieces to it to modify it.)  
"How'd you get here?" Jack questioned.  
"Simple. Heaven's Eye had me on speed dial. Contrary to my name, I have a little surprise for you." Solar responded. "Since you're immune to flinching..."  
Solar and Quincy grab Jack and inject his neck with the entirety of all the Radiance stored in the Everlasting Gallery. This includes Solar's own Radiance, which he has stored within himself from years of living in the Cuteness Valley. "A land entirely of pink will do that to you," Solar says.  
Even though Solar warped Jack to the confines of Cuteness Valley's underground (where the Radiance is most influential), Jack is seen in the Crossroads violently disintegrating, all of the once-clear Affinities turning blue as he did so.  
"That's a LOT of blood. Exactly how many Affinities was he keeping in himself?" Quincy said. He was coated in blue as he said this.  
"I won't bother to count, but the Reader's forces have gone down a lot ever since I warped Jack to a different time. Now, all we need to do is investigate the road to his current field: the House of Dominion. He squeezed 2013 and 2016 into one zone and filled them both up with Dominion. That is where his power is most influential. Rally the allies up, we're about to travel to our last stop." Solar explained.

1 hour later

"Great, nobody died!" Father Pure said.  
"How exactly do we travel to this "House of Dominion"?" Midway asked.  
"We have to go back into the Hexagon Foundation and flip it. Then, Quincy will open up the gate to the next zone and let us all in. Then we find The Reader through his impressive maze. His forces are many, and his rooms are PACKED. We don't exactly know how big of a problem this is going to be for us, but once we figure it out, we will clear Solution City of any worries." Eschaton said.  
They were all planning for the rush to The Reader's House of Dominion inside Father Pure's lab, which is the entry point for the Hexagon Foundation. Quincy knew this from constant back-and-forths through the place. If he didn't see that world through his eyes, he would occasionally use another person's eyes and take a gander at the things they do. Quincy used this technique to know about the biker group's existence. That's also how he knew that Speeder was about to show up.

Either way, there was a new and significant task at hand.


	4. Chapter 4

The crew enters the Hexagon Foundation through Eschaton's portal and have Quincy unlock the gate by flipping the place until its red. Quincy switches the color scheme with a snap of his fingers and has everyone go inside. Then, when everyone has already entered...  
"Have you entered my place... intending to pursue it?"  
Quincy felt himself enter a new location, one that he doesn't even recall knowing exists. The entire crew look back and notice their leader missing from the team. "Where'd he go?!" Eschaton exclaimed.  
It's not known where he went, but none other than The Reader was there. He knew that Quincy was about to head to his place with his crew, so that's why he whisked him off.   
"You know, in another universe, I met this fancy plant-user... she so solidly beat me senseless until I ran in fear, not knowing what her plans were next. Those roots are so sharp, so jagged. Alright, change of topic. You're not like her. I went to her. You went to me. What do you want from me again - to balance the world's powers? Oh, it's too late. Everyone's already hooked on this thing, and the Dominion's influence flows to their heads every time. I know how to command an army. I have stacked the game in my favor ever since I read through everything that you guys have done. Every last one of my remaining troops has died due to your efforts. That's why I went to you when you went for me." The Reader said in the comfort of a misty, Dominion-filled room. Quincy couldn't even touch him up there - he was too far away AND intangible.  
"I'll give you a final test. Think you can endure this one?" The Reader said while throwing Quincy in a dark room containing 100 of the geometric humanoid aliens that Exciter last fought.  
Heaven's Eye was ready for this, so it appeared, flew high up in the air, and cast lightning potent enough to shatter trees.   
Every alien in the room vanished in a heartbeat, their shattered parts filling the room. "If I can defeat this new army this fast, then surely the commander must have a weakness somewhere, too!" Heaven's Eye said while returning to Quincy's side.  
Quincy, warping back to the dim room, ran past The Reader and made it to another place. A dark treasure chest walled by a new type of energy stood there, and The Reader teleported right to it.  
"I have made contact with forces out of anyone's control. Solution City knows not of this new energy. When I combine three of the most potent Dominion Affinities - Strength, Willpower, and Assertion - I will become the strongest individual anyone has ever known!" The Reader said.  
With that, he opened the chest, infusing himself with these foreign forces.  
He was right. Nothing that anyone could do to him lasted. When the ring surrounded The Reader, the integrated mind of another reality warper, Starchaser, entered him. The Reader flew off to find the rest of Quincy's crew.

"I have no weakness." The Reader said to them all when he descended from the air in front of his castle's courtyard, where everyone else was.  
Everyone stopped to notice him.  
"Now that I have the three superpowers of the world, combined with the influence of the Outer Forces, I have the entire world in my hands." The Reader explained. "The Denizen wasn't able to take these from me. Encore was a mere test; I was downright able to--"  
"Speak no more. We all know where this is going, so hold your breath." Midway retorted.  
While this was going on, Quincy pulled out his gun and fired at the wall. The Reader tried to catch it, but his hand missed.   
"I wasn't even aiming for you," Quincy said. "The large walls that make up the boundary of the courtyard glow in your colors. Thus, I just had to make sure it wasn't the thing keeping you alive."  
"And why would you--" The Reader said just before the bullet hit the wall, denting The Reader's mind.  
"Everyone, fall back!" Quincy warned everyone as Sprite made a portal to Solution City. Everyone indeed fell back and returned to the roof of Father Pure's lab. Meanwhile, The Reader let off a massive burst of energy to patch up the cracked wall. "That will put me off for the rest of the week," The Reader said under his breath.

Quincy obtained some more intel from Eschaton 15 minutes after that moment. There are eight different versions of The Reader scattered across Solution City. Each one has a different set of powers, like Donatello, who mainly fights with fists, knives, and summoning trains. This Quincy found out once he made it downtown and encountered him. The journey across separate realities was a real mess, considering that landing in the limbo between realities meant instant death.  
Once Donatello was defeated by having his own train destroy his entire body, Quincy saw five polygonal aliens flying across the sky raining gunfire on another set, which were blue.  
"Why are The Reader's own forces attacking each other?" Quincy pondered as he went back to regroup with Eschaton and The Gatekeeper.

The group had split up to target various foes scattered throughout the city. The next opponent was the ruthless Leonardo, who weaponized six strings that function as sturdy ropes, able to swing from place to place and grab opponents. Most importantly - and his favorite thing to do - he can infect his opponents with a deadly parasite that eats away at the organs. Of course, he does this when he's not ripping people apart. His mere presence unsettles Quincy when he arrives there. So much so that Quincy chooses to fight from afar, using his gun to try and pick off his veins. However, Leonardo's threads are way too fast to quite cut off from this distance, so Quincy opts to get closer.  
Even though Leo can see him coming, he didn't know about Quincy's laser sword, the upgraded version of Everlasting Gallery. A sword that can cut through most solids, that is. Leo tried his best to back away and stab him with the ropes, but Quincy would just cut them down with every strike of his sword. That's when Eschaton appeared from above the skyscraper they were fighting on and said, "Thank you for handling my light work!" only for Leo to cast dark lightning from his veins and take him down. He was fine, but Quincy's nerves weren't. He instinctively summoned a small panda with a staff who often acts older than she is. Quincy picked her up and threw her at extreme forces. Thankfully, Leo caught her.  
But that wasn't enough, for Quincy quickly rushed forward and cut Leo in half. When his torso hit the ground below the heights, his blood painted a large radius around it.

"I have an excellent idea, let's find the next person on our hit list!" the panda said.  
"Yep. The next one is a little somebody named Diego. I heard he loves to play tricks." Quincy replied. 

"Those Affinities you have there... Don't you get tired of looking at them and playing around with them in your head? Don't you wish you could get more? Who knows how long you'll have them before you get tired of them and have nothing left?"

These are the words of Dream Warrior Diego. Part of the method of defeating him was to enter the dream world and follow him around. His first stop was at an airport, where he casually sat on the roof, too high for an average person to reach. Thankfully, Quincy was anything but ordinary, so he had Heaven's Eye go up there and fight him. Diego saw this coming, so he whipped up a massive tornado and had Heaven's Eye fight him up there. Diego's combination of laser attacks and melee attacks DID keep Heaven's Eye at bay, and it only got worse as Diego started flying, just like Heaven's Eye can. Quincy snuck himself inside the tornado dimension and summoned that panda from earlier. She leaped up and grabbed Diego, dragging him to the ground. Heaven's Eye retreated to Quincy as the panda threw her staff for a multi-hit combo as it returned, continued it with a chain of strikes going in midair, then launched him back down again to knock him down.   
While Diego did get up to summon a clone of the panda and make the two fight, Quincy retaliated with a quick dash of his sword, cleaving Diego in two.  
But the clone didn't vanish.

The two pandas kept parrying each other's hits with their staves. However, Quincy's decided to try some long-range methods. She threw the stave, had it return, then kicked the other one upwards and used a powerful fire-based projectile called Magic Bolt (not actually magic). The opponent flew back at an insane distance. Quincy closed the gap by kicking the clone back at the panda, which led her to the Magic Execution, an iron maiden that vanishes when the opponent falls inside it. It's like they never existed. Of course, this is not the only form of Magic Execution.  
With the clone gone, the two dreamers exit that world and return to their most perilous journey yet - division.

Quincy took a walk around Solution City and just noticed the facility for the Artists' Guild. Hanging on the side of the building was a poster depicting one of their members, a fox wearing a blue shirt.  
"You know, if I could draw like this, I could start my own fundraiser," Quincy said to himself just before a light-based individual shot out of there and rushed at Quincy. He dodged the bolt of light and cut it with his sword. The culprit, Pisanello, fell out of the flash of light and tumbled on the ground with a gaping scar where his side should be. "What's your deal?" Quincy said as he pointed his sword at Pisanello.   
"I saw you stare at that photo and thought you got jealous," he responded.  
"Nah, I got inspired," Quincy replied.  
"Well, ain't that something. You should try expanding your range of emotions! Show me that fear!" Pisanello said while brandishing his gun. It shot out a bolt of light that Quincy casually evaded. "I wasn't aiming for you," Pisanello said.  
The light bullet opened up a portal that unveiled a much bigger beam of light that swept the ground. Quincy barely evaded it and brought out Heaven's Eye, who rushed at Pisanello faster than he could react and cut him in the chest. Pisanello, not fazed by this at all, grabbed Heaven's Eye and threw him at the light portal.  
Quincy had three seconds to react to this, so he instinctively brandished a pencil and threw it at Pisanello backhanded. "This is a technique all artists have to remember. A smart defense strategy for those who can't fight. Another addition to an impressive arsenal for those who can!" Quincy said before the pencil stabbed Pisanello. Paint covered his entire body before he exploded in a splash of colors. Only his hoodie, shoes, and earphones were left behind. Quincy was about to walk off and call it a day, but then Pisanello transformed into a flash of light and approached the guy.   
"I'll let you in on a secret The Reader gave me. This city kind of looks familiar to you, right? The twisty tower, the towering buildings; Doesn't it ring a bell? This city is an alternate version of a place you already know. In 2016, Solution City began construction underneath Zootopia. Don't you remember that? The Artists' Guild knows this well; That's why when you go inside, there are all sorts of art for that city hanging everywhere. Praised be the artists that craft this sort of thing. They indeed make fundraisers for their efforts!" Pisanello explained.  
"Are you going to make me carry this to the grave?" Quincy questioned.  
"How'd you know what my next line was?" Pisanello said worryingly.  
"Because a bolt of light is absurdly powerful. A single flash of lightning can decimate stone. I don't want you causing havoc anywhere in this area." Quincy said before brandishing Heaven's Eye so fast that Pisanello had no time to react before perishing in a burst of light. Nothing was remaining of him at all except for his clothes and the paint left behind by Artist's Dilemma, the pencil that Quincy threw at him. "You failed the first test, and that was reaction speed." he commented.

Meanwhile...

"Listen, buddy. Stuff like this takes time! Now just wait till I--" The Reader said to his cohort just before a mosquito-like stinger stabbed him in the shoulder, dragging him to the roof of his castle.   
"How'd you get here?" The Reader said.  
The culprit identified herself as a girl from another world, Winston.  
"Your timeline's got holes in it, so I took a visit here. I want to know something about those Polygons." Winston asked.  
"Oh, you mean my refugees from the other world? I don't know why they were fighting each other, either. I was about to summon more blue ones until you came in." The Reader replied.  
"Yeah, I'll make you reconsider that fast," Winston said, preparing her psychic powers. A feline with tenacity she may be, but even she feels outmatched by The Reader's sheer power.  
Even if he's down by three units of power, she feels like she can't hold a candle. She's still determined, however.

Two days later, Quincy returns to Father Pure's lab. Nothing is the way it should be; everything is in a state of disarray, and words display on the walls, written in a blue substance: "Follow that trail."  
Quincy does, and on his way to Father Pure's studying room, two masked individuals made out of Dominion reveal themselves to Quincy, flipping from behind the walls. Father Pure is behind them, unable to move an inch.   
"They're too powerful!" Father Pure said.  
Quincy prepared his sword, this time infused with Radiance.   
The Dominion ninjas flipped towards each other, becoming one being.  
"Is this just one of The Reader's parts? Or is it actually two?" Quincy asked himself.  
The ninja approached Quincy and tried to stab him.  
Quincy had Heaven's Eye block the sword while he jumped behind the ninja.  
Boosting his strike with the help of the panda from earlier, Quincy prepares a massive horizontal attack.   
The ninja splits into two before the attack can connect, and they both rush at Quincy faster than he could think.  
He prepares a blocking stance as the fox wearing a tie appeared in front of him and uppercut the ninjas.  
"I thought for sure that the bunny would show up! Whatever, I'll pick my battles." Quincy thought.  
He then had the fox attempt a dropkick on one of the ninjas, but it grabbed his legs and threw him backward. Quincy isn't hurt, but it does take a bar off of his Conjuration Gauge.  
Quincy responds to this by summoning a Particle Affinity, which floats in the air.  
He leaps on top of the table and fires it.  
Once the floating square fires a proximity mine, it explodes on contact with one of the ninjas.  
Severely wounded, it can no longer fuse with the other ninja, prompting Quincy to Conjure a raccoon wielding a hook-shaped staff.   
The ninja and the raccoon trade blows with each other with their weapons.  
The raccoon, however, stuns the ninja by spinning his staff around and stabbing the ninja in the heart.  
Both Dominion Ninjas defeated, Quincy takes back his Conjuration and examines Father Pure more closely. He's not too badly wounded, but he did have this to say.  
"The Reader has already gone to four different Dominion conduits. The one Dangle was in was a test. The Reader wanted to make sure he knew what it felt to be in one of those areas. Thus, he chased after the other ones and grew stronger. He is trying to break his limits." Father Pure said after getting up and tidying up around the desk.  
"What can I do about this?" Quincy asked.  
"There are still three more Reader Units left to defeat. I'll journey with you." Father Pure said.   
Then Midway came in through the window that Father Pure sits behind.   
"There are large beams of light in Solution City. Big, blue rays of light. I don't know where they came from, but I have a feeling that we're in the middle of an invasion."  
"We have been for years, lighten up." Father Pure remarked.  
"We should investigate them!" Quincy suggested.

And that they did. The three heroes exit Father Pure's lab and go walking towards the closest one to them, which was a little bit away from the Artists' Guild.

  
The big blue beam responded to Quincy's presence.  
"Two days passed while you were still walking around. That was me. My name is Chopin. I skipped time while you journeyed through Solution City. That is not my ability, however! Walk into the blue beam, and find out who I am!"

Chopin is a Boston Terrier who specializes in distracting his enemies with Affinities that he implants in their minds. His expert fighting ability ensures his total victory over weak-minded people. This fact was proven when Quincy went up to the battlefield and ran into Chopin's stun attack. Chopin charged at him, but Quincy had preemptively summoned a different raccoon, this time carrying more guns than anyone else in Solution City had. This raccoon fired away at Chopin, kicking him away to throw bombs at him. Before he could detonate them, Chopin got up and asked The Reader to "let [Chopin] borrow [The Reader's] power..."  
Midway tried to show up and intervene, but Chopin's power of "Manzoku" (Japanese: "satisfaction") got in the way and blocked Midway from approaching Quincy.  
"When the locations we journey to shift past the museum, I will have the power to rule the world. Do you understand me?" Chopin explained.  
"Keep talking," Quincy remarked.  
They both pulled out their swords, and although Chopin's broke when Quincy cut it with his sword, Chopin still used his powers to keep up with Quincy.  
The two fought intensely as the background changed from space to a library to a museum.   
"Now, I shall merge with the Six Genres to become a being on par with The Reader himself!" Chopin said as he fired his Radiant Dominion Affinity at Quincy. It reflected itself off of the glass walls and went for Quincy. However...  
"Please, I take in this stuff for kicks! See, got a few of 'em right here!" Quincy said as he pointed his finger at Chopin, reflecting the Affinity at him. Chopin, hanging in the air, is stunned.  
Quincy kicks off the glass wall and runs on the other one, uppercutting Chopin until he splits in half. The Manzoku leaves him and returns to The Reader. Meanwhile, Quincy himself returns to Solution City and runs after the next sky beam.

The Reader, meanwhile, was using the Six Genres - Manzoku, Anshin, Tosui, Kofuku, Kakusei, and Naguisame - to fight Winston, who was nearing defeat. He had fired three of his Magic Shaders at her, which are pointy arrows that pierce the soul itself. Then he launched her in the distance with a Dominion Affinity.  
"I forgot to put up a "No Trespassing" sign on my castle. Either way, you have given me an idea." The Reader said to Winston.  
"And now that Chopin's gone, Manzoku has returned to me. This way, I can finally achieve what I've been looking for! This new stage is "Maximum Euphoria"!" The Reader says to himself. He retreats inside his base and begins work on the new phase of his abilities.

Midway chose to stay inside the sky beam that he entered before Chopin was defeated. As a result, every sky beam in the vicinity disappears, leaving only the path to The Reader's castle. It hadn't even revealed itself yet. Only one German Shepherd was standing in the new desert. His name was Beethoven. A master of Affinity manipulation, nobody has survived the extreme tests of the desert he resides inside.  
Midway has several solutions to this.  
First, he stalls Beethoven enough by rushing at him, sword drawn. The two had a rather tense fight, swiping here and there. The two made banter while they were at it.  
"You won't last long around these parts. The Reader gave me a nice opportunity here!" Beethoven said.  
"Bet on it. I've learned a few new tricks while on my way here!" Midway said.  
"What do you mean?" Beethoven asked.  
Midway then stepped back and took in lots of energy. LOTS of energy. Enough to have something like Heaven's Eye appear behind him, an angelic, metallic guardian that wielded a sword. Beethoven was genuinely concerned, yet awed at its brilliance. Then Midway said, "I need your aid, kind being. Open yourself up to me, and lend me your power!" as he reached out and grabbed a lion cub that had a tear in the sensitive area. She was still leaking from that area, but he managed to fuse the guardian with her. This act brought him to an elevated state of power.   
"I feel like a god now... Where are all these Affinities coming from?!" Midway said to himself. Beethoven, for some reason, was utterly terrified of Midway's new appearance. He steadily moved backward, fearing for his life. "It ain't over yet, is it?" Midway said. Beethoven was speechless, having witnessed someone contact the Outer Forces for help. The desert changed shape, morphing into a grid filled with grotesque, deformed Affinities that depicted absolutely vile events. "So I see. The lion cub originated here..." Midway and The Reader said in unison.   
Reading from a book, The Reader got excited and read more.   
"From where no man dared to travel, the wanderer stood tall against the coward, lying there. The guardian had wings of gold, a fearless sword, and a look of determination. The wanderer, without fail, cut the coward in half with brutal intent against a glowing, ethereal blade, and used the sparkling jewels around him to impale the coward seventy times over, spilling his blood all over the battlefield." After he finished reading, he closed the book and said, "I wonder if the story came true."  
It did. Beethoven's internals were showing, and Midway flew off to find The Reader's castle.

The sky beams vanished. Quincy only had the way to The Reader's castle left to go. Why? Because he didn't know it yet, but the time periods were starting to merge!  
Meanwhile, Midway was CHARGING through The Reader's castle, hopping mad. He went up the stairs, went through the metal armors, took some more stairs, and came across a hallway overlooking the sky. After knocking out the knights there, he took another flight of stairs on the right and cut the two knights guarding it in half. Upon marching up the throne room, he saw Father Pure on the ground, having fought The Reader beforehand.  
"Why hello there, Midway. Tell me. Do you know the difference between the power of Radiance and arousal? One of them keeps you up until heaven itself dawns on you. The other is just there to divert eye contact! You can never look at the same piece of art twice! Do you know why I have those sex scenes on the wall?! It's beca--" The Reader said.  
Midway just brandished the Radiant Spear, pink in color, and knocked The Reader aside.  
"I know what you did to The Denizen, and it's terrifying! Lower than the low! You should be ashamed of yourself!" Midway screamed.  
"I am not." The Reader said, getting up. With one of the Six Genres, he froze time, just as Quincy arrived at the scene. Midway used a mark on his arm to counteract the time stop with a burst of Radiance.   
"What did you just do?!" The Reader exclaimed as the background changed to something resembling a galaxy.   
"See, it's hereditary. I went into hiding a long time ago and continued to wander the universe's worlds as a man with hidden powers. Aurora used to be my name until recently, where I found a new home. I formed my biker group, but I kept my Radiance powers an absolute secret. Still, I'm a proud member of Solar's bloodline!" Midway explained.   
With the Radiant Spear in hand, he spun it at an unimaginable rate. The Reader tried to catch up with his sword stabs, but Midway's sheer power and speed actually outpaced him and cut him a few times.   
Getting up from the recoil from the clash, The Reader points at the screen he watches everything from and says the well-meaning words.   
"I have already melded the time periods! The years are all mine, which is why I possess the Six Genres!" The Reader explains. He didn't know it yet, but Quincy freed Sprite and Solar, who The Reader trapped in the castle walls. All three of them were watching from behind the wall.  
The Reader readied the Three Shaders, which were products of the defeated souls of the Yearpoint Guardians. They were activated when the Yearpoint Schedule activated.  
"Now, let me ask you something. Do you want to achieve the ultimate Radiance or the ultimate Dominion? One power eclipses the other! You know what to choose, Midway!" The Reader said.

  
Back in their pasts, The Reader, who was known as Sear back in 2015, and Midway found their respective courses in life by coming into contact with their respective elements. Sear found a magaz--  
"Who even still reads these anymore?!" Sear says upon noticing one. He steps on it and crushes it under his heel. Sear then locates a place of similar content by using a phone. Once he found the Hexagon Foundation, he suddenly felt a power rush course through him. From this came the desire to have more. He found the Dominion.   
"If this lasts forever, as they say, then where can I find more of it?!" Sear exclaimed. He thought of the next thing ahead of him, Midway's first taste of sheer power, revolting.

Midway, then known as Aurora in 2017, underwent trials and tribulations. He went into exile from his former ruling place because of reasons he can't quite remember. He thinks everyone there treated him badly, but in reality, he probably did some horrible things himself. He is absolutely willing to leave this behind, for the other side of Cuteness Valley awaited him. The overwhelming amount of glitter there left after-images in the sky, which revealed translucent photos of small animals in its wake. The pink lightning enveloped Aurora's entire body as the man thought to himself: "Would anyone be willing to get tired of this?" That's when he found the Lockstep Shelter, which has nothing but cute things. One room contains a pet shelter, which is fully maintained by three sections of staff, and another holds whole books filled with photos of children and pets having fun with each other.  
"This must be a brilliant method of containing such vibrant motion! Is there a name for it?" Aurora thought to himself. A staff member noticed Aurora's condition and asked him, "Is the Radiance treating you well?"  
Midway then found his purpose.

The powers of Radiance and Dominion clash as the two stand head to head, weapons were drawn. The Reader took the time to unfurl his wings as he revealed himself to everyone in the room.  
"I have no time to say anything except for my introduction. Sear traveled this world looking for the ultimate power source to warm up to and get comfortable. I am that traveler, and look at how far I've come! Now that time has combined, I can freely move the arena like this!" The Reader shouts as he transforms the arena into an enormous cube that he can shift at will. Quincy and his allies experienced this shift for themselves, shortly before they realized that they could walk on walls.  
Afterward, Midway leaped and kicked The Reader hard as he could. The Reader flew back and landed on the wall. He got up and stood on it.   
Quincy ran on the wall he was on towards him and brandished his laser sword. Heaven's Eye was bothered by the influx of both energies running throughout the cube in currents. It convulsed and broke its armor to reveal a sleek frame bordered by Tron lines. The wings disappeared, replaced by a jet system. The sword is also gone, replaced by another hand. Heaven's Eye has reached its fourth phase, where it prioritizes Conjurations and Radiance manipulation over direct attacks. It teleports to The Reader and engages in a clash with him. The overwhelming speed of its punches drove The Reader back so far that the cube started to fall apart, replaced by brilliant, ethereal space.  
"Is this what you wanted? Cold, hard air bordered by forces that you already know? Come on now." The Reader said to the allies.

Then a black hole ripped through open space, having been triggered by the force of a hundred powers. The timeline splits in half; everyone disappears except for Heaven's Mirror and Quincy as they both fly through the empty wormhole generated by the split.

"What's going on?!" Quincy yelled. Nobody could hear him, however. The next area certainly surprised him a bunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what happens when you rush through a story and have no time for an ending


End file.
